LiveC-SEC Season Two: Armed And Dangerous
by jerseydanielgibson
Summary: A cop and a reporter patrol the Orlop Outer Tract (Zakera); the worst section of the Citadel in terms of crime and poverty. Freshly famous from the hit show 'LiveC-SEC', Corporal Jane Shepard is finding out she isn't the only one about to be in the spotlight as the gangs of the Scows take on the most famous cop in the galaxy for a chance for their own fifteen minutes of fame.
1. Shots Fired, I

_Mass Effect is own by BioEAWare. Concept based off the A&E Entertainment program 'LivePD'._

**Unnamed Corridor, Stayn District, Block 3821 (Orlop Wards), Zakera Arm, Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, February 15, 2175**

* * *

FADE IN

**[POV is moving, swaying left and right slightly with the sound of heavy breathing and running as low-rent buildings pass by either side. CORPORAL JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD is running just ahead. The sound of running footfalls is heard]**

FADE OUT

_DISPATCHER: ALL UNITS, BE ADVISED, 314 IN PROGRESS, SUB-BLOCK 3875, ORLOP OUTER TRACT ZAKERA. BE ADVISED, 314 IS IN PROGRESS._

* * *

_Title Credit_

**LiveC-SEC**

* * *

FADE IN

**[POV is running with SHEPARD just ahead]**

CORPORAL JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD: **[Yelling from ahead while running]** Keep running, cookie dough!

MICHAEL PATRICK GREENE: **[Huffing and yelling]** _We're running _into_ a firefight!_

JCS: **[From ahead]** Run faster! Weren't you the wide receiver or something back in high school?

MPG: _That's American football!_

FADE OUT

DISPATCHER:_ ALL UNITS IN VICINITY, PLEASE RESPOND. SHOTS FIRED, SUB-BLOCK 3775, ORLOP OUTER TRACT ZAKERA. CALLING ALL UNITS IN VICINITY. 314 IN PROGRESS, SHOTS FIRED, OFFICERS IN DISTRESS. _

* * *

_Title Credit_

**SEASON 2**

* * *

FADE IN

**[POV is panting as it is chasing SHEPARD, passing by buildings as random CitCitz slide by in a blur as the sound of running is overheard. In the distance, gunfire occurs]**

MPG: _Jesus-[__beep__]ing-Christ-Jesus[__beep__]ing-Christ-Jesus-[__beep__]ing-Christ…_

JCS: **[From ahead]** We're almost there, cookie dough!

**[SHEPARD rounds a corner and heads down a narrower corridor. POV follows]**

**[An ASARI in multicolored armor appears from a doorway, wielding a two-handed rifle-looking weapon with a large tubular revolver underneath. It is a grenade launcher]**

**[SHEPARD runs right towards the ASARI and full-body tackles her to the ground with an audible crunch of armor as both go down to the ground]**

**[A nearby gunshot ahead is heard OFF-SCREEN]**

MPG: _SHEPARD!_

FADE OUT

DISPATCHER:_ BE ADVISE, SUSPECTS ARE AT LARGE, AND ARE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS. I REPEAT, SUSPECTS ARE AT LARGE AND ARE CONSIDERED;_

* * *

_Title Credit_

**ARMED AND DANGEROUS**

* * *

**Apt. 1408, Stannis Fields Building, 3125 Block (Lower Wards), Kithoi Arm, Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, February 8, 2175**

MPG: _So what made you want to be a cop?_

* * *

_Title Credit_

**JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD: THE INTERVIEW**

* * *

**[BEGIN POINT-OF-VIEW RECORDING]**

**[POV show a Turian-oriented domicile; the home of Shaltis Adepdos. In front of POV is CORPORAL JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD, sitting in a Human-oriented chair in from of a way with a cloth tapestry of a scenic Palaven. Instead of wearing C-SEC Armor, SHEPARD is dressed in a C-SEC Duty Uniform; periwinkle blue with soft black-colored shoulders and underpanelling. Sitting next to her is CENTURION GARRUS KAALDOR VAKARIAN, sitting in a Turian-oriented chair, also dressed in a C-SEC Duty Uniform. This is an interview]**

JCS: My dad's a cop, so there was certainly that. Not that everyone ends up in the same profession as one of their parents, but in certain jobs, there's probably a greater percentage of those who wish their children do the same thing. Doctors, lawyers, business owners, cops, nurse, that kind of thing. I guess the reverse is kind of true too; there's professions that children will look up to more if they see it as more honorable or more beneficial. Mom was a medical technician, so it's probably easy to think that between the two of them, civil service and duty ran pretty high in the family.

MPG: _Was that the case?_

JCS: Oh yeah. It was all my brother could talk about, doing his stint in the military and becoming a cop like Dad. **[SHEPARD looks over to VAKARIAN with a smile]** The sun rose and set with Dad in Garrus' eyes.

GARRUS KAALDOR VAKARIAN: I was not that bad.

JCS: **[Smiles and looks to VAKARIAN]** Oh yeah you were.

MPG: _So I have to ask; what it was like? I mean, as far as anyone's aware, you're the only Human/Turian family. Turians wouldn't know what it was like, and neither would Humans. Your family were pioneers._

JCS: My first memories were of the Vakarians. It was all I knew or had ever known, and it didn't seem strange to me. I mean, yes, I knew I was of a different species. But growing up on the Citadel with its many species and its diversity, it was the perfect setting, really. It was life, it was my life, and there was no need to physically accept it; it just was.

GKV: Jane was what you would call a toddler or small child at the time, approximately three years of age. I was ten, and Sol, our sister, was five. Solona really just grew up having a sister that didn't look like us, but that was really it in her mind. For me it was a little different; I was older, and I was just old enough to know what had happened concerning the Relay 314 Incident. I didn't get the politics of the time, but I knew that my species and Janes' had just fought a war, and that she was a survivor of it.

MPG: _You're a Shanxi survivor?_

JCS: I was found by my Dad, Castis, in a house where my birth parents had been murdered by other humans. My mother had lived long enough to tell Dad what had happened; that Resistance fighters had come to my parents' home to take their food by force.

**[There is an obvious pause, and VAKARIAN places a gentle taloned hand on SHEPARD's shoulder for comfort and support]**

JCS: They… shot and killed my father. They beat and abused my mother badly enough that Dad found her laying in a pool of her own blood, dying. He didn't know anything medical related to human beings, so he did the only thing he could do with a species he couldn't hardly understand; he held her hand and made sure she didn't die alone. I was three years old when I watched my mother die.

**[Pause]**

JCS: There's a recording that my mother made at that time. She explained what happened and asks for someone to look out for me, to raise me and…

**[There is another pause, and VAKARIAN squeezes SHEPARD's shoulder]**

JCS: My mother's last words were for me, a lifetime of hope and love and regret compressed into a few minutes. Dad kept the recording and a picture he had found of my family, gave them to me when I started asking questions that weren't so childish, when I was old enough to understand. Those… were different times back then.

GKV: I remember your Asari diet.

JCS: I still hate the sight of _goosha_ paste.

MPG: _Asari diet?_

GKV: There weren't any Systems Alliance diplomatic missions to the Citadel for years, so Jane grew up knowing almost nothing of her own people, and certainly none of their food or culture. Our _dam_ had to trail-and-error levo-chiliary food that Jane would eat because there simply wasn't any Human foods available. Come to find out Human children are finicky eaters, and she certainly would not eat Salarian food.

JCS: Still won't. Our tongues aren't like Salarian tongues, and the flavors come out all wrong. Asari food is palatable, though most of it is sea-oriented. Telling a kid to eat their seaweed and kelp? I'm sure Mom had fun with that.

GKV: It might have been used as a projectile device a time or two. **[SHEPARD laughs]**

MPG: _So you really grew up not knowing anything?_

JCS: I was the first Human on the Citadel, and the only one for… five years, I think? I still remember meeting my first Human, actually. Older gentleman in a suit, Hugo Depardieu. I had no idea at the time who he was, his title, any of that. I just remember being an eight year old little girl about to meet another member of my species for the very first time when I saw him exit the diplomatic mission vessel that came to the Citadel for the first time. I was really excited about it.

GKV: I remember that. You wouldn't stop talking about it for a week. **[To POV]** Jane was very much looking forward to meeting someone like herself. I was too, actually. I had never seen another Human outside of pics save Jane, and it was important to her. So it was important to me.

MPG: _That's got to be a first; meeting your first Human being. How did that go?_

JCS: **[Sighs]** Extremely disappointing. Broke my heart, actually.

MPG: _Wait… really?_

GKV: She didn't know any of the languages from Earth. She knew some words from before, but she was very young and we didn't know what they meant. She naturally forgot them as we conversed with her in our own language. She grew up learning Unifying Cipritine because it was the only language we knew, and the Systems Alliance wouldn't send anything for us to help Jane discover her own species.

JCS: Yeah, they thought their culture was too precious to share. **[SHEPARD's tone is heavily laced with scorn]** That wasn't exactly the answer verbatim, but it was pretty close to that.

MPG: _You went up to the diplomatic mission wearing Turian clothing and speaking Cipritine hoping you could learn more. And… they brushed you off?_

GKV: Worse than that, actually. I remember, I was there.

JCS: You were there for me. Like a brother should. **[SHEPARD smiles at VAKARIAN]** So the diplomatic mission shows up with… I think fifty or so Humans, mostly representatives of the various governments and a few interested parties willing to learn and explore. It was a pretty big deal for the Citadel at the time, and there were some dignitaries and politicians there. Dad got the Ambassador…

GKV: Telnar Korvac.

JCS: …to allow me into the ceremony as well as the welcoming committee.

MPG: _Um, it just occurred to me. Are you a Citizen of the Hierarchy?_

JCS: Yes. Seventh-Tier. Would you rather me walk around being an undocumented person?

MPG: _No! It just…_ **[Pause]** _They rejected you, didn't they? The diplomatic mission?_

**[There is a very heavy pregnant pause]**

MPG: _They did worse than that, didn't they?_

JCS: We'll just leave it as a 'yes'.

MPG: _So if you're a full Citizen of the Hierarchy, that meant you served in the Hierarchy Military, right? That's how I understand it._

JCS: Yes.** [Smiles. It is obvious this is a more pleasant topic]** Went to basic at fifteen and served three years in the Hierarchy Auxiliary Corps. First of my kind, though I was hardly the only non-Turian to do so.

MPG: _I know that there are Volus who serve in the Turian Military, being a client state. Were there others?_

JCS: Volus, Asari who were daughters of Turian sires, a few Drell who weren't under the Compact. The AuxCorps is still mostly populated with Turians who were injured or crippled from battle or the performance of their duties, but were still willing to serve. Main duties consisted of disaster response and relief, emergency services, civil obedience issues…

MPG: _Um… civil what?_

GKV: Jane slugged it out with the Seppies more than a few times.

MPG: _Seppies?_

JCS: Separatists. Bunch of back system idiots who reject their own government as being unacceptable and too oppressing. [SHEPARD does a curious hand gesture; it looks like she turns an invisible door knob open in front of her, but only with three fingers. It is obviously a Turian gesture] Think that hording a bunch of guns in remote bunkers while building improvised bombs and praying for, I duuno, some solar flare to knock [beep] out so they can have their day in the sun. It's one thing to think you're sticking it in the craw of the Hierarchy by having a subscription to some left-wing survivalist ExtraNet channel and pretending that you're living in the Tenth Century before the Hierarchy joined the Council. It's another to bring harm to citizens or start taking potshots at the military. That ends with you getting turned to glass. **[SHEPARD shrugs]** I got to be the glassmaker. Did three years of that, mostly on Taetrus. Turned eighteen, went back home, joined C-SEC.

GKV: **[To SHEPARD]** Our sire was quite proud of you when you graduated the Academy with such high reviews. Let you get the duty and posting you wanted.

MPG: _Wait, so C-SEC Officers are generally assigned their postings, that I get. And I know that they're like the _Mexicano Federales_ in which C-SEC covers a great deal of departments and bureaus, so it makes sense that they would assign people based on their scores and strengths. But if you score within a certain percentage…_

GVK: The top ten percentile.

MPG: _…you get to chose your job and location? _

JCS: That's right. It's a good incentive to do well in training.

MPG: _And you picked beat cop? In what you call the worst section of the Citadel?_

**[There is a pause]**

JCS: **[With pride]** Yes.

**END INTERVIEW**

* * *

**Orlop Sub-Precinct, Access District, Block 3750 (Orlop Wards), Zakera Arm, Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, February 12, 2175**

CORPORAL JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD: **[Voice-over]** They say in the center of the galaxy, there is a supermassive black hole.

**[BEGIN VIDEO MONTAGE]**

**[POV is at corridor-level of the Orlop Ward of the Outer Tract District of the Zakera Arm, a trigital neon sign displaying the name upon a massive pillar that goes from deck-to-ceiling in a skyless underground city. The pillar is the turbolift access for the Lower Wards/Orlop Wards. There is a gated platform where sapients of all races move onto the massive elevating platform that only goes one level, the platform guarded by a secure turnbuckle gate with Electronic Identification Access that one scans o activate the gate to allow one person to pass]**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** And it's said that that SMBH will eventually be the death of us all, slowly pulling that galaxy closer and closer in, dragging us in to crush us to death, the inevitable end.

**[POV switches to a small building just outside the protected turnbuckle of the platform; in neon blue letters 'C-SEC' is displayed on its wall. Sapients pass by it without so much as a glance as an even dozen Officers man the access points of the turnbuckle. Sapients come into the turnbuckle with a flash of blue for access above the gate, some denied passage with a flash of red for denial. One instant happens with a Turian male in what appears to be civilian-oriented battle armor decorated in a motif of cabalistic symbols along the trunk. The male immediately confronts the Salarian C-SEC Officer in his booth, belligerent and insulting before pulling out a handgun from a secreted compartment in his armor before the screen cuts to black as a gunshot is heard] **

JCS: **[Voice-over]** Sounds peaceful.

**[BEGIN POINT-OF-VIEW RECORDING]**

**[POV is following DECANTUS/CORPORAL JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD as she walks in full C-SEC Armor down a broad corridor with hundreds of sapients moving to or fro towards their individual destinations. SHEPARD has a Smith and Wesson Model 44 Magnum-Weight Duty Pistol on her right hip, an Elkoss Combine Avenger Mk. IV Assault Rifle on her chest, and an Elkoss Combine Scimitar Mk. II Shotgun mag-locked vertically to the left side of her spine. There is also a brace of PacRods on her left thigh, Pacification Rods for non-lethal deterrents. The buildings to either side, known as HabStacks, look poor and the worse-for-wear. So do the sapients moving in and out of them as well as walking down the corridor]**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** The Scows; the section that's known as the Orlop Ward of the Outer Tract of the Zakera Arm. It's five kilometers wide by five kilometers deep, going under the hydroponic lake of Zakera that feeds into the Citadels' biomass plant. Down here, you don't see the trigital sky, the Serpent Nebula, the ships that fly by, or down the length of the Arm.

**[POV goes to SHEPARD walks into a small business connected to a HabStack, where three Turian youths dressed in drab robes printed with popular vids or Batarian rock artists are being talked to by the Human female C-SEC Officer, having caught them tagging the interior walls of a reclamation stall with gang glyphs]**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** Down here, there's no stars to look upon, no dreams to be had. The poverty here is thick, and crime is rife. You can find it in every sub-block and every corridor, a people lost, a people without hope of their lives ever getting any better. It's as if the galaxy has taken the forgotten and despised and turned the Scows into the collective dumping point.

**[POV sees SHEPARD watching over a game of LaserTag, two teams of Turian boys in a section blocked off and called a park. No trees or grass grows in the area; instead, it is merely a concrete pad where items have been fabricated for use; here a bench, there a spinning contraption for toddlers, but mostly one sees youths of several species hanging out together. The games that they are involved in aren't so much childish as they are depressing. There is an active game of what appears to be 'cops and gangers' where no one wants to be the cops. SHEPARD watches on as the young sapients play and interact, most giving her a wary eye]**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** Times are tough with the galactic economy in its' fifth straight year of a major recession. Rent has steadily increased with each political session while cost of living adjustments across the board have been sadly lacking. The taxes and budgets that would help the Scows be better maintained have taken cut after cut as the people here struggle to make ends meet. Lights and living conditions continue to worsen while people are forced to pay more for less services available. It's no real surprise that people are having to turn away from the right path in the name of family and survival.

**[POV follows SHEPARD into a local convenience store where the male Drell clerk serves a male Salarian customer behind ballistic glass. The shelves are rather bare of items, and the atmosphere of the store is dark and dingy. SHEPARD grabs a Tupari from the icebox after waiving at the Drell behind the roundproof station for him to unlock the door for her from his spot. SHEPARD pays for two Tuparis through a tiny slot in the roundproof alumniglas]**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** Down here, the gangs are in control. There are so many of them that you can't walk without bumping into several from a couple of different groups. It's a varren-eat-varren world down here where the gangs are all territorial, and walking down the wrong sub-block or HabStack will have someone beaten within a centimeter of their life… and that's the happy scenario. Sometimes the small raids and hits for control of a sub-block corner or a HabStack turns to open warfare as dozens armed with illegal weapons modded for auto fire and loaded with illegal ammo blocks turn an area into a casualties can run as high as the hundreds in a couple of minutes, guilty and innocent alike. Especially when someone starts pulling out the explosive munitions.

**[POV follows SHEPARD past a wall tagged heavily in several languages and glyphs from OmniTools, declaring names, ownership, and what one could do with oneself. The most common thing seen is '[EDITED] C-SEC']**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** I know what the politicians say about places like the Scows, the breeding ground of criminality and terrorism. They hope that the animals wipe themselves out, too busy shooting at each other instead of getting together to make themselves something more of a political or economic presence. The only time those elected officials will look down here from the safety of their gated communities and nice office spaces in the 'sidium is when their polls are trending downward. That's when they rattle the cages and send us Blue Shirts down in droves to round up the usual suspects or whoever is the target of the hour. They use cute terms like 'being tough on crime' and 'cleaning up the corridors'.

**[POV sees SHEPARD slip towards a boarded doorway where a huddled figure tucks itself into the recess of the doorway, covered by a robe and almost disappeared in its cloth. SHEPARD moves the hood aside to see a Turian male with plates sagging with age, mandibles pitted and twisted, plates cracked and deformed. She puts two fingers under the jaw for a moment, and then slowly pulls them away beofre touching the forehead and slipping the hood over the face. She then gets on her BlueTool to call it in]**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** Drugs and weapons are everywhere in the Scows. Prostitution is merely a way of life for all species and gender, not even a social stigma. Bars serve both liquor and blood where people who seem to be too poor to fund their domiciles somehow always have Credits to drink their sorrows away. Back corridor gambling dens, flop houses, illegal fabrication suites, narcotics labs, weapon print shops, shackled AI programs, slave markets, combat mechs smuggled and reprogrammed, explosives, cloned organs, exotic creatures, species you'd swear having even invented lighter-than-air flight; you'll find all that down here and much, much more.

**[POV shows Shepard detaining an Asari citizen, frisking them and pulling out several items from their dress. One is a small stoppered bottle with an eyedropper as a companion. POV shows the young Asari Maiden with bloodshot eyes and slight red stains to the corners of her eyes as the Thessian sneers at POV]**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** They say it's worse on Omega and Cartegena Station. I can't imagine how.

**[POV shows tough-looking Salarians, Turians, and even Krogan hanging together, sporting the same glyph on their respective clothes as SHEPARD walks by. The obvious gang members all stare at SHEPARD as she saunters by, barely giving them a second glance]**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** And yet… there is life here.

**[POV shows SHEPARD leading towards an education center where Asari Younglings walk to the location, several of them pointing out SHEPARD and actually waiving to the Human, who waves back, a little surprised. The scene shifts to the inside of a school room where it is easy to tell that it is a poor location; there are no terminals, no DataPadds, and no holographic projection screen as a female Turian educator teaches lessons with aid of a cheap lightboard and a stylus to write down math equations for a classroom filled with Turian youths that have yet to hit their fifteenth year. The scene shifts again to a Turian male sire with his hatchling riding on top of his cowl as they walk through a corridor, the boy hatchling with his arms sticking out as he make purring noises, as if flying. The scene shifts to an Asari Matriarch in the robes of a Priestess of Athame, tending to those who seem to live in a corridor, delivering food packets and clothes. The scene shifts to a Turian Valluvius Watcher of Spirits tending to a Shrine, where Spirit Totems and Spirit Banners decorate the walls, the Turian Priest invoking the Spirits for those who visit to remember loved ones. The scene shifts to an old Drell female wearing a breather cup on her face as a young Drell male escorts her tenderly, his arm fed through hers, obviously family] **

JCS: **[Voice-over]** Every time I think I've seen all, I'm surprised. I'll see a cold-blooded murder in the same building where I see a single father raising three children, making it work. I'll walk these corridors of the forgotten and dejected, and yet they haven't forgotten who or what they are. I see friends get together, I see the young fall in love for the first time, I see elders grouse on how easy our generation has it! Despite what fate has delivered them, these people have survived and persevered. There's something… special about them, to walk such a hard road so easily, fraught with such dangers and be completely inoculated to it.

**[POV shows SHEPARD standing in front of a lightboard advertisement of her own face promoting 'LiveC-SEC', in which someone has tagged it with some rather colorful commentary about what she could do about herself and anatomical references to her. SHEPARD points them out with some amusement]**

JCS: **[Voice-over]** When that black hole finally comes and swallows us all, guess where my Credits are going to go on who survives?

* * *

**Stayn District, Block 3821 (Orlop Wards), Zakera Arm, Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, February 15, 2175**

**[BEGIN POINT-OF-VIEW RECORDING]**

**[POV shows a narrow corridor in between two tall buildings where most of the lights are out, the corridor has a great deal of trash and tags, and DECANTUS/CORPORAL JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD is in the middle of stopping a mugging involving a robed Salarian male and a suited Volus. The Salarian is holding a piece of cloth to the back of his head while the Volus is seated on the ground with a pair of SnapCuffs around his suited wrists behind his back]**

CORPORAL JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD: I wouldn't recommend just walking around with that, Mister Ingree. I don't want you wandering about with a concussion or a possible fractured skull. I can escort you to the nearest clinic to get it checked out while your new friend Mister Jahleed-Clan here gets to explain to a Magistrate while bonking you over your head for your OmniTool seemed like such a good idea before I made him regurgitate his lunch in his own suit.

INGREE CHORBAN: I assure you I am hard-headed, Officer Shepard. My sister insists on telling me this every day. **[SHEPARD snorts at that]** Thank you for your timely intervention, but I believe I can make my way to the Stayn Clinic on my own. If I need to, I can call my sister or one of my brothers for assistance. Being away from here and my assaulter is likely for the best.

CUR JAHLEED: [hwurk] He lies, [hwurk] with every breath.

**[SHEPARD turns to the seated Volus, CUR JAHLEED]**

JCS: Jahleed-Clan, you are being charged with first-degree assault upon a sapient, possession of a weapon with the intent to use, and felonious larceny. You have the right to refrain from self-incrimination. Anything that you say, text, send, or receive will be used as testimony in a Judiciary Tribunal. You have the right for legal council upon the completion of your processing at a Citadel Security Precinct Station. If you cannot secure legal council for yourself, a public council can be provided to you by your species' Embassy for any questioning sessions, court dates, and appeals process. Is there any questions in the rights in which I have explained to you?

CJ: He was trying, [hwurk] to scan Keepers, [hwurk] with that modified OmniTool!

**[SHEPARD looks to POV and rolls her eyes]**

JCS: You do realize that you are in the act of self-incrimination without me asking any questions in relation to the crimes I am charging you with, Jahleed-Clan? If you admit to anything else, the charges will increase. **[SHEPARD looks to INGREE CHORBAN]** Go ahead and head to the clinic, Mister Ingree. He might claim you're growing Eezo in your culinary next.

IC: Yes, Officer Shepard. Thank you. **[INGREE bows slightly, wincing as he holds the cloth to where he had been hit on the back of the head, and turns to leave the corridor as SHEPARD turns to the Volus] **

JCS: You and I are going for a little walk, Vol-Clan. See some sights, meet some people, grace some cells. You be a good boy and I won't stuff you in Pedigree Row with the Batarians and the Vorcha.

**[SHEPARD's SquadComm squawks]**

DISPATCHER:_ ALL UNITS, BE ADVISED, 314 IN PROGRESS, SUB-BLOCK 3875, ORLOP OUTER TRACT ZAKERA. BE ADVISED, 314 IS IN PROGRESS. ALL UNITS IN VICINITY, PLEASE RESPOND. SHOTS FIRED, SUB-BLOCK 3775, ORLOP OUTER TRACT ZAKERA. CALLING ALL UNITS IN VICINITY. 314 IN PROGRESS, SHOTS FIRED, OFFICERS IN DISTRESS. BE ADVISE, SUSPECTS ARE AT LARGE, AND ARE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS. I REPEAT, SUSPECTS ARE AT LARGE AND ARE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS. _

**[SHEPARD looks to POV, eyes a little wide]**

JCS: **[Touching ear]** Dispatch, this is Unit 10-35, currently located at 3821 Stayn. Moving to location, advise who the Officers are. **[To POV]** Get your running face on, cookie dough, we're about half-a-kilometer away. **[To CUR JAHLEED]** Stay put or make your way to the sub-station, otherwise I hunt you down while you're still manacled, Jahleed-Clan. **[To POV]** Let's get moving, cookie dough! **[SHEPARD begins to run down the narrow corridor towards an intersection with a larger one as POV chases her, bouncing and swaying with the act of running]**

MICHAEL PATRICK GREENE: **[While running]** _What's a 314?_

JCS: **[While running]** Gang warfare!

DISPATCHER: _Unit 10-35, Units 10-18 and 10-19 are on location._ **[SHEPARD swears out loud up ahead]** _Be advised, multiple suspects and two factions involved in territorial dispute. Code 245, Code 996, Code 298 have been reported. Unit 10-18 reported as Status 1144._ **[SHEPARD swears again as she and POV run, turning down a broad corridor]**

JCS: The AutoWalk!

**[SHEPARD runs right for a moveable sidewalk that has several sapients standing prosaically upon it as she shouts to clear the way, gaining speed on the traveling flat conveyor. POV is right behind her as sapients move out of the way, squawking as SHEPARD barrels down the path at full speed]**

MPG: _What are we running into?_

JCS: A [beep]ing nightmare! Keep running! **[SHEPARD barrels down the AutoWalk as she shouts at sapients to move out of the way. One Batarian deliberately gets in front of her and SHEPARD backhands the Khar'shanian without breaking stride as POV barely gets a glance at the male Batarian cradling a possible broken face while still running]** 245 is the illegal weapon usage code! 996 is the explosives code! 298 is the homicide code! Means were running into automatic fire, some [beep]hole with grenades or a missile launcher, and probably a pile of dead bodies!

MPG: _And we're running into it?_

JCS: Jovis is just a rookie on her second month, cookie dough! And she's by herself looking at a massacre!

MPG: _Where's her partner at?_

**[SHEPARD just looks back and glares at him as she runs]**

MPG: _Oh. Oh [__beep__]. That's what 1144 means._

**[The sound of distant gunfire is becoming apparent as POV runs with SHEPARD just ahead]**

JCS: **[Yelling from ahead while running]** Keep running, cookie dough!

MPG: **[Huffing and yelling]** _We're running _into_ a firefight!_

JCS: Run faster! Weren't you the wide receiver or something back in high school?

MPG: _That's American football!_

**[POV is panting as it is chasing SHEPARD, passing by buildings as random CitCitz slide by in a blur as the sound of running is overheard. The gunfire is getting louder]**

MPG: _Jesus-[__beep__]ing-Christ-Jesus[__beep__]ing-Christ-Jesus-[__beep__]ing-Christ…_

JCS: **[From ahead]** We're almost there, cookie dough!

**[SHEPARD rounds a corner and heads down a narrower corridor. POV follows]**

**[An ASARI in multicolored armor appears from a doorway, wielding a two-handed rifle-looking weapon with a large tubular revolver underneath. It is a grenade launcher]**

**[SHEPARD runs right towards the ASARI and full-body tackles her to the ground with an audible crunch of armor as both go down to the ground]**

**[A nearby gunshot ahead is heard OFF-SCREEN]**

MPG: _SHEPARD!_

* * *

Author's Notes: Cliffhangers; the gift so nice I gave it twice. In the same chapter, no less, in the same exact way.

I had originally planned to detail's Shepard's unusual childhood later on whenever some jerk Human points out that her parents were killed on Shanxi in the First Contact War, assuming that it would have been Turians that had done the deed, but then the story would have come out. Instead, I decided to have the Vakarians known as her adoptive family earlier on and make her background and service history (Adoptee/Heirarchist) known earlier on as a way to show why Shepard became a cop instead of joining the Systems Alliance Military. There will be some more to it, but the basic premise is that Jane grew up with the Vakarians, raised on the Citadel, went Turian Military, and then C-SEC.

I made Turian Separatists into what we commonly think of American Separatists; the Turian version of nutcase rednecks living out in the woods prepping for the zombie apocalypse.

Yes, I brought out the 'Scan The Keeper' guys.

This isn't actually the first time I made a Mass Effect version of the Miranda Rights; in _Where The Law Stands Tall_ and _A Fox Amongst The Wolves_, Marshal Samantha Collins delivers a Systems Alliance version a few times to arrested persons. Here, Jane uses one that's similar, though I change the names to sound more different than the American version, and then add the fact that the 'free' lawyer comes from a citizen's embassy.

The codes are based off the old-school LAPD codes; a 314 is actually an indecent exposure code, 245 is assault with a deadly weapon, 996 is the explosion code, and 298 is actually the 187/homicide code with one added to each number. Code 1144 is actually a part of the '10' codes, and 11-44 is a possible fatality call.


	2. Shots Fired, II

_Mass Effect is own by BioEAWare. Concept based off the A&E Entertainment program 'LivePD'._

**Stayn District, Block 3775 (Orlop Wards), Zakera Arm, Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, February 15, 2175**

**NARRATOR: DUE TO THE GRAPHICAL NATURE OF THIS CONTENT, VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.**

* * *

**[BEGIN POINT-OF-VIEW RECORDING]**

**[An ASARI in multicolored armor appears from a doorway, wielding a two-handed rifle-looking weapon with a large tubular revolver underneath. It is a grenade launcher]**

**[DECANTUS/CORPORAL JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD runs right towards the ASARI and full-body tackles her to the ground with an audible crunch of armor as both go down to the ground]**

**[A nearby gunshot ahead is heard OFF-SCREEN]**

MICHAEL PATRICK GREENE: _SHEPARD!_

**[SHEPARD stands up from the tackle, her Smith and Wesson Model 44 Magnum-Weight Duty Pistol in her right hand, and a Elanus Risk Control Services M-100 Grenade Launcher in her left]**

CORPORAL JANE CATHERINE SHEPARD: We need to get moving, cookie dough.

**[POV nods, looks over to the ASARI. The armored Thessian is laying in a pool of lavender blood that is spreading around where she lays face-first on the ground. A black spot is over the head]**

MPG: **[Gulps audibly]**_ Is… that… her…?_

JCS: We need to get to _Civi_ Jovis and _Centurion_ Reminion, cookie dough.

MPG: _Right._ **[Coughs]** _Lead the way._

**[SHEPARD moves, picking up speed as POV runs after her. The sound of gunfight is loud, constant, and seemingly from multiple directions as POV looks along the buildings on either side, to look for sources as SHEPARD runs forward. A star of yellow and orange flares from above the building ahead and to the left, a vapor trail coming from it]**

MPG: **[Still running, heading towards the buildings]** _Oh God, oh [__beep__]_

**[The star introduces itself to the building across the corridor and a bloom of fire is seen. Less than a second later, the sound of the explosion comes]**

MPG: _Shepard, that was a [__beep__]ing rocket!_

JCS: **[Running ahead]** No [beep]!

**[A torrent of gunfire is heard, seemingly from everywhere up ahead, small flashes of light coming from multiple levels and locations in the buildings ahead]**

JCS: **[Hand goes up to her ear, to her SquadComm]** 10-19! Where are you!

VOICE: **[Off-Screen to left]** _Shepard! Over here! In DayWard!_

**[POV looks to a small business connected to a building where a green face and black eyes pop up from an open window]**

JCS: Sprint it, cookie dough!

**[POV immediately heads towards the open doorway where scorch marks and pock-marks in the wall are seen as POV dashes through the entrance as gunfire erupts in high volume. POV goes dark for a few seconds from the change of illumination as POV stands several meters from the entrance, looking towards it as SHEPARD takes to an open window, crouching below its opening for protection with her Elkoss Combines' Avenger Mk. IV Assault Rifle in her hands, another C-SEC Officer manning the other window across from the door. The Officer is a Drell, and the panic in their tone is obvious]**

DRELL: Thank Amonkira you showed up, Jane! Everything exploded approximately five minutes prior and it's been constant ever since! **[There is still heavy gunfire outside of the windows and open door, and POV sees that the open windows were really once lined with plastiglas, now shot out and broken on the ground at their feet]** Cavis had us come here to protect the sapients in this business and was shot several times pulling a mother and her two children inside. **[The Drell looks down for a moment]** They're using grenade launchers, rocket launchers, as well as armor-piercing and incendiary ammo blocks, Shepard.

JCS: **[Speaking just above the gunfire outside]** Where's Cavis at?

**[The Drell C-SEC Officer turns to look at the back of the store, nodding towards POV's direction]**

**[POV turns to see an open room with four dozen people inside, a the back of the business. There are approximately five adults of three species, and the rest children. By the group is a Turian male in C-SEC Armor, lying on the ground and not moving]**

MPG: _Jesus! This is a daycare! They're shooting at a [__beep__]ing daycare!_ **[POV shifts to SHEPARD]** _Is there no other way for them to leave other than the front door and a hail of gunfire?_

DRELL: No. **[POV looks to DRELL]** Who are you?

JCS: Ameki, this is Mike Greene with Future Content.

DRELL: Cookie dough?

MPG: **[To SHEPARD]** _Why does everyone think that's my name?_

JCS: Mike, meet Civi/Officer Ameki Jovis. Her partner is _Centurion_ Cavis Reminion. **[To JOVIS]** Is Cav…?

CIV/OFFICER AMEKI KARNA JOVIS: He took at least five incendiary rounds to the back, Jane. He stayed conscious long enough to pull a Turian and her hatchlings in with the rest before… **[JOVIS's voice quits after this, looking down]** The gangs are in the buildings and out in the corridors, trying to dislodge one another. I already had to stop two from coming in to flush me out.

JCS: Yeah, I took one out with a grenade launcher about a minute ago. Stole the bitch's boom-boom, too.** [The M-100 Grenade Launcher is currently mag-locked to SHEPARD's back]** Mike? Go over to Reminion and put your fingers under his snout to see if he's still breathing.

MPG: _If he isn't?_ **[SHEPARD just looks at him as gunfire begins pattering off the walls of DayWard]** _I'm checking._

**[POV moves and turns towards the rear of the business, where children-oriented toys and furniture dominate the large open-bay room, heading past brightly-colored objects and items as POV looks at the five adult sapients and forty-plus children of just about every species huddled at the very back wall. The sound of whimpering is audible over the gunfire from behind POV as the male Turian in C-SEC Armor looms on-screen, coming up closer as a Human right hand appears on-screen, two fingers held underneath the Turian's nose for a moment. The two fingers then move to brush the half-opened eyelids close]**

JCS: **[Off-Screen]** _Mike?_

**[POV turns to look at SHEPARD several meters away, still crouched at the window as JOVIS is sticking out at her position, engaging something off-screen. POV shifts left to right quickly. SHEPARD looks over to JOVIS for a moment, who ducks back down behind cover, the Drell looking to SHEPARD]**

AKJ: What is it? **[JOVIS looks to SHEPARD, then to POV]** No…

JCS: I'm sorry, Ameki. He died protecting a _dam_ and her children. I know he wouldn't regret that.

AKJ: **[Barely audible]** I know.

MPG: _I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything, but what do we do? We can't risk the kids out there, but there's only two of you. I supremely doubt me grabbing a gun will do anything meaningful._

JCS: We do what anyone else would do when in a [beep] situ like this.

AKJ: Call for back-up?

JCS: Call for the big boys.

MPG: _Big boys?_

AKJ: You mean…?

JCS: **[Touches ear]** Dispatch? This is Unit 10-35, located at DayWard Youngling Care Facility Block 3775. Request RRU Intervention for extraction of forty plus children and five sapient adults trapped in DayWard Youngling Care Facility. Repeat, request RRU Intervention at this time. Prep for explosive munitions, AP ammo, and incendiary ammo. Recommend heavy-tac.

DISPATCHER: _COPY, UNIT 10-35. RRU REQUESTED AT 3775, DAYWARD YOUNGLING CARE FACILITY. FORTY PLUS LESS-THAN-ADULT AGE SAPIENTS AND FIVE ADULT SAPIENTS TRAPPED IN FACILITY. COPY EXPLOSIVE, ARMOR-PIERCING, INCENDIARY AMMUNITION IN USE. RECOMMENDATION NOTED AND INCLUDED IN REQUEST. ADVICE NUMBER OF ASSAILANTS._

JCS: Seventy-plus, at least the Deathdealers are involved. **[To POV with a shrug]** Tech gang.

AKJ: Scary tech gang. I also saw Pillars markings.

JCS: Figures. Dispatch? Markings consist of at least the Deathdealers and the Pillars of Verush involved. **[To JOVIS]** That's all we [beep]ing need. [Beep]holes with stolen military equipment fighting off a slaver gang ran by some SIU [beep]sucker. **[To POV] **Stick there for now, cookie dough. If someone hits a wall with a rocket, you should be far enough back.

**[POV looks to SHEPARD, then to JOVIS, and then back to the four dozen sapients huddling at the back of the facility, a lot of little faces and eyes looking at POV]**

MPG: _[__Beep__]_

* * *

**Stayn District, Block 3775 (Orlop Wards), Zakera Arm, Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, February 15, 2175**

Hato'Zulin vas Midin stood in the small office space that his company of tech dealers operated from in the Stayn District down in the Orlop Wards of the Outer Tract (Zakera), a rentable space that he gotten at a good price from a Salarian office space broker who knew better than to ask questions. The office was a disposable one; the only thing of note in it were several terminals used for transactions, orders, inventory, and budget, all backed up on his personal server and the information easily sanitized with a toggled killswitch that would erase the data, fry the hard-drives, and command detonate the terminal towers with their overloaded power supplies.

An alert on his personally-created-and-modified OmniTool had him turning on one of the trigraphical hologram monitors of a terminal and link it into the Future Content Network provider subscription he had gotten just last week when some Human C-SEC Officer had absolutely blown up the social media world by putting a hit on some Volus Sand dealer by calling (of all people) for the Sapphire Queen to pull the little wobble off the Cit and make the rest of his very miserable life as painful as possible. Hato had watched the show, simply called 'LiveC-SEC', and was utterly perplexed by the stupidity of this Future Content Network. Did these Humans not realize that there would be those that would watch the reality show for procedural intelligence on how Citadel Security worked? Even the segments that didn't look like a badly-written Turian action vid were still useful in seeing how C-SEC Officers (at least the Human variety) operated. He had a Virtual Intelligence study all the codes that were used in the show, able to hack through the secured C-SEC communications protocol after nearly a day of pen-testing the communication protocols until he got the crypto key and began listening to C-SEC chatter, able to decipher some of the codes. It paid to have an eye towards any actions against him and his group of Migrant Fleet Tech Marines.

All of this was because of a botched deal involving the greedy Pillars of Verush. Hato blamed himself. Well, and the bloody Bats, too.

The _Subtenant_ watched the show on the holographic monitor and saw that, despite message board speculation that it was canned and made to appear to be a 'live' holovision show, it was indeed a live near-realtime show in which there was a delay of several moments. He saw in the monitor two C-SEC Officers hunkered down behind the viewports of a building that was across the corridor from where the office space he rented was located. There was in fact a business called 'DayWard' there, and it was a business oriented for parents to drop of their Natals for a Watch shift while they went to whatever employments that they had. The Officers were talking to the one with the feed, the Human man (obviously wearing some device on his head such as a recording visor) asking questions and looking about, catching 'the action'. The sight of a dead C-SEC Officer hadn't pleased him at all, even if it was a Turian. That Turian Officer had supposedly rescued a woman and her two Natals, bringing them into the facility for protection and had taken rounds for them, saving their lives at the cost of his own. That was something that _Subtenant_ Zulin respected. He also knew that it would likely bring the wrath of C-SEC… and much worse.

"Han." Hato called up on his personal communicator, encrypted with his own crafted communication key. The less of a footprint they made as to who and what they were, the better. Nothing was to make its way back to the Fleet.

"_Go for Han, brother."_ His twin brother, Han'Zulin vas Midin, replied back in his suit-integrated communicator. Together they ran this endeavor; Hato did the tech, Han did the protection.

"I need you to stop firing upon the port-side building, ground floor, declination six-eighty." The _Subtenant_ said, watching the show as the Human female, Shepard, said that she was going to call 'the big boys'. The C-SEC _Decantus_ had already outed the name of the 'gang' that was their cover over live HV, but was thankfully under the impression that they were merely a tech gang that dealt in stolen guns. Likely, they thought that the 'Deathdealers' merely smuggled the weapons onto the Cit; some were able to do that with bribes, the right people in the right places, and a great deal of personal risk. Hato and Han had a different sort of operation involved, and the less C-SEC knew, the better.

"_The store called… DayWard?"_ His brother asked, his tone uncertain. _"We are taking some fire from that location."_

"It's two C-SEC Officers protecting a room filled with Natals." Hato replied, watching as Shepard called in a request for RRU; known as Rapid Response Unit, the most-premiere law enforcement agency in the galaxy, a group of heavy-hitters that deployed on the Cit to eliminate threats such as the one going on in the Stayn District.

_Queep._

Yes, the Deathdealers dealt and sold in military-grade arms and munitions, as well as BlackTech. Yes, his team of eight Migrant Fleet-trained Tech Marines were battle-hardened and could even take on a Special Intervention Unit Operative-led gang of slave-soldiers sporting BSA-manufactured hardware without casualty so far minus Tressa. And technically that hadn't been on the Pillars; Hato had seen the young Asari Maiden who had joined because she was the daughter of an Asari Matron and a Quarian Pilgrim who had hit her eighty year mark and had wanted to make her Quarian female _athintar_ proud of her for fighting for both People and Fleet killed by Shepard when she saw the Maiden armed with a ERCS-blueprinted M-100 Anti-Personnel Munitions Launcher. So far, they only had one fatality and two minor casualties while the Pillars stupidly threw its slave-soldiers into the breech, having already taken significant losses. Unfortunately, the action had brought the attention of Citadel Security, something that Hato and Han had been steadily avoiding thanks to good protocol and discretion. But the _queep_ing Pillars had gone to the business transaction with the intent of killing the Deathdealers, keeping the Credits and taking the hardware. Everything had broken down after that, and now eyes were on them. And now RRU was being requested.

_Queep._

"_How do you know it's two C-SEC Officers?"_ His brother asked. Hato was in the disposable office, his forefinger ready to hit the electronic killswitch that would destroy all the evidence in the office, to erase anything that had been done to protect themselves, but more importantly the Fleet. This botched deal would be a major setback, but Hato and his brother had weathered such before, having done this for six years now. His twin brother was manning the _ad hoc_ defensive positions that contained their pre-arranged escape route and fallback position. Unfortunately, Yorrl had been throwing slave-soldiers constantly at the positions, probably thinking that their Loom was located inside the building somewhere. _Bosh'tet_ Bat.

"It's currently showing live on Future Content." The older of two Zulin brothers replied, still watching the feed. The request for RRU had been sent, and Hato clucked at that.

They wouldn't have much time. They weren't called _Rapid Response_ for nothing.

"…_that Shepard isn't anything special, as far as I can tell."_ His brother said, a blast of gunfire going off.

"Except for the fact that she took on four armed Turian thugs single-handedly and won, and she just took out Tressa, who was armed with a grenade launcher." Hato pointed out for his brother. There was a reason Hato was the tech-oriented one while Han handled the protection and security. They made not only great brothers, but a great team, too. "She patrols the Scows, and she claims this is her third year. One doesn't last that long in the Scows being weak or a fool, Han. Not as a C-SEC Officer."

Hato had been rather amused listening to this Shepard rant about the Scows after taking down that Pitne For character by getting him nabbed by the Sapphire Queen. Little gasbag went and tried to pull the _reilk_ over Aria's eyes, and he got what was coming to him. Everyone knew not to _queep_ with Her Majesty. _EVERYONE_. This Shepard wasn't an idiot; she saw things for what they truly were. Yet her interview said she had picked this location to be a C-SEC Officer in. It almost sounded as if she had a death wish or had a cracked helmet, save… no, she lived here, was raised here. The Citadel truly was home to her just like the Fleet was home for him and his. She wasn't crazy; she defended her home with pride, and went for the worst spot possible to do the most good. Hato got that, he really did. It was exactly what he was doing, after all.

"_Alright, brother, we'll shift fire. They'll think we abandoned position and focus on the Pillars. That works in our favor."_ There was a short series of orders that followed along those lines, their group moving their aim away from the building in question. Han would understand why, as well as the rest of their section. Blue Shirts took the deaths of their Officers very personally, but there was a few things they hated worse than the sight of a dead cop. A dead innocent bystander ranked up there, but even that was superseded by something worse.

Dead children. One would have to be a complete and utter _tuhu_ to endanger the life of a Natal. Especially in front of cops.

"_So… you're watching the show, right?"_ _Subtenant_ Han'Zulin vas Midin asked, his tone cheeky. _"Does she have some nice _mams_? Her hips are a little too narrow for my tastes."_

Hato just sighed.

* * *

**[BEGIN POINT-OF-VIEW RECORDING]**

DISPATCHER: _UNIT 10-35, THIS IS DISPATCH._

**[POV looks at SHEPARD who is armed with her Elkoss Combine Avenger Mk. IV Assault Rifle, engaging at something Off-Screen before ducking back down into cover when rounds impact against the buildings' walls. JOVIS occupies her own window, also armed with an Avenger Mk. IV]**

JCS:** [Touches ear]** Dispatch, this is 10-35! Go ahead!

DISPATCHER: _REQUEST HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED. ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL IS SET AT FORTY-FIVE PLUS MINUTES. RRU COMMANDER REITERATES THAT THE SITU IS TOO HOT FOR DEPLOYMENT, AND ADVISES THAT THEY WILL COME WHEN THE SITU DEFUSES SIGNIFICANTLY._

**[There is a pause as SHEPARD and JOVIS look to one another, SHEPARD's face grim, and JOVIS' jaw hanging open]**

MPG: _Does that mean what I think that means? Cavalry isn't coming because it's too tough for Citadel SWAT?_

AKJ: Tar[beep] kreema do [beep]lak vor!

JCS: **[Amused]** Don't hold back, Ameki. Tell us how you really feel.

MPG: _So are we hunkering?_

AKJ: 'Hunkering'?

JCS: Cookie dough means to ask if we are going to stay in cover and let this blow over. Unfortunately, it's not a great option. That means we have to rely on the Deathdealers or the Pillars to move on, quit, or get themselves butchered. They can bring in reinforcements, hire reinforcements, or some two-bit gang can decide to be opportunists and jump in for a slice of the pie. And all that time, we're here, sitting right in their sights without a means of taking control of the situ. We stay here, we're in a portion of their crossfire and someone might get smart and use this as another position by flushing us out and using the kids as hostages.

AKJ: I think the Pillars are sending more over!

**[SHEPARD checks outside, and begins engaging with her Avenger in short, steady bursts while JOVIS does the same. Rounds patter off the walls of DayWard as the two Officers fire back. After an intense moment of exchanged gunfire, JOVIS cries out and drops behind cover, her Avenger clattering to the ground]**

AKJ: **[Gasping]** I'm… I'm hit!

JCS: Cookie dough, check her wound to see if it's lodged in there, if it's an in-or-out, or if its incendiary.

MPG: _Oh God, oh-okay._ **[POV moves towards JOVIS, who is holding her right upper arm, dark green blood seeping between her fingers and down her armor]** _You're going to have to tell me what to look for, Officer. _

AKJ: E-Exit wound. Is there a hole in the back of my arm or not?

**[There is Off-Screen firing going on from SHEPARD, and the sound of round impacts against DayWard]**

MPG: _This might hurt._

**[Two Human hands show up in POV, taking JOVIS's arm and holding it steady as POV shifts to look to the underside of the Drell's tricep. JOVIS whimpers a little]**

MPG: _I see a hole coming out just above your elbow. Is… that good?_

JCS: **[Off-Screen]** _Means the round went clean through, likely an AP round. More bleeding, less physical damage. Assist Ameki in closing up with that wound. Talk him through it._ **[There is more gunfire]** _Damn Pillars are pouring out on the streets._

AKJ: **[To POV]** I'll keep pressure on the wound, you pull out the MediGel AutoInjector from my pouch on my right hip. It has a blue circle on it **[POV looks down and sees the pouch in question, hands appearing to open it up to pull out a stylized AutoInjector that looks like a miniature pistol but with a conical tip]** Do the one by my elbow first, that one is likely the largest. Insert the tip into the gunshot wound and fill it with MediGel.

MPG: _This is probably going to hurt._

JCS: **[Off-Screen]** _It does._

**[POV lifts JOVIS' arm, making the Drell wince as the AutoInjector presses into her gunshot wound, making her bite down in pain. Then the trigger is pulled]**

**[JOVIS scream out in pain]**

AKJ: Amonkira! Bra[beep]nti vo[beep]lk!

MPG: _Sorry! Sorry!_

**[The AutoInjector leaves JOVIS' arm, and a clearish fluid is plugging up the gunshot wound inside her armor, dark green blood no longer oozing out]**

MPG: _The… other one?_

**[JOVIS just looks at POV, blink large dark eyes]**

AKJ: **[Resigned]** Get it over with, Human.

**[The AutoInjector goes for the gunshot wound that's in her bicep. The trigger is pulled, and JOVIS bites down through the pain]**

MPG: _Done, Officer._

AKJ: **[Weakly] **Call me Ameki, Mike. And thank you.

JCS: **[Firing through the window]** _Give it a minute or two to dull the pain and staunch the worst of it. _**[POV turns to SHEPARD, who has moved back and is locking back the heat dispenser bolt on her Avenger before mag-locking it on her chest and pulling out her Smith and Wesson Model 44 Magnum-Weight Duty Pistol]** That was your shooting arm. Can you still move your fingers? **[SHEPARD is firing through the window]**

AKJ: **[Off-Screen]** _I can move my fingers._

**[POV shifts to the fallen Avenger, two hands appearing to pick it up and turning to JOVIS to hand it to her. The Drell winces as she reaches out to take the Assault Rifle, barely able to hold it]**

AKJ: Think I'm going to have to stick with my pistol.

* * *

**Apt. 1408, Stannis Fields Building, 3125 Block (Lower Wards), Kithoi Arm, Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, February 15, 2175**

"Dam! Auntie's on!" Maxivus Adepdos called out as Shaltis Adepdos held her youngest Lutania in one arm, holding a plate for the two-year old female hatchling to feed herself the _vantikar_ bits for dinner as the little boy hatchling called out his favorite program happily. In the past week, 'LiveC-SEC' had aired every day thanks to the dozen Human C-SEC Officers who now had some sort of reporter following them about with a recording visor. As Shaltis understood it from Michael Greene, the other segments were chosen to help promote education and learning of diversity for the Human populous, meant to help ease tensions between the Sons and Daughters of Terra and Palavenians.

That was before a certain reporter picked a certain redhead and the events that transpired pretty much command-detonated the ExtraNet with views and social media trolling.

The previous editions of the show had been rather prosaic compared to when _Decantus_ Jane Catherine Shepard launched herself at Pitne For for killing her partner and Shaltis' bondmate, _Centurion_ Castis Adepdos. There was always a 'Shepard Segment' now, the only Human female cop in C-SEC patrolling the worst section in all of the Citadel; the Orlop Outer Tract Zakera. The other eleven Officers had tough areas, but none of them had an area like the Scows. Whatever the other eleven saw at random, it was near-constant for her bondmates' partner. None of them had been involved in shootings like Jane had, had seen the deceased like Jane had. Only a week, and it was easy to tell why _Decantus_ Shepard remained a fan favorite.

What did Jane call it? _Sexy danger?_

It was almost impossible to keep Maxi from watching what he called 'Auntie's show', knowing full well that his Auntie Jane was on holovision being a cop, and able to see her being 'one of the good guys'. It broke Shaltis' hearts a little to watch her son watch Jane when a month or so prior, he could have been watching his sire, too. That ache was still there, and Maxi still cried a little bit when he went to bed, his sire no longer there to tuck him in or read him a story. Both Shaltis and Jane filled in that role, but it wasn't exactly the same. It took a male to teach a son how to be man, and they were trying their best. At the least, Maxi had what appeared to be the galaxy's toughest Aunt in Jane Shepard, and Spirits praise her for all that she did for Shaltis and her hatchlings.

Shaltis wasn't exactly pleased that Jane was now a galaxy famous cop. But there was little to be done about that now.

"Look, dam! Auntie's with a Drell!" Maxi called out happily as Shaltis went to sit with her son in the family room, seeing Jane hunkered down behind an open window in some building, holding her assault rifle in her hands. The Turian female watched as the situation unfolded, seeing another brave Spirit giving his life for the greater good as Mike checked to see if the _Centurion_ that was _Civi_ Ameki Jovis' partner was still alive.

_That was Castis_, the widow thought, seeing _Civi_ Jovis' face fall at the confirmation of her partners' death, giving his life to save a _dam_ and two hatchlings. _Castis gave his life for Jane, believed in doing what he felt was the right thing; protecting his subordinate, his partner, his friend. _Now Jane was holding a position with a rookie cop in what looked to be a rather intense firefight between gangs, the sound of explosions intermittent in between the gunfire. Shaltis saw that her son was watching with rapt wonder, a little Turian boy dreaming of the day he would serve the Hierarchy and crush Separatists and pirates like his sire and his human aunt had. It was good that he saw these things early; it prepared him for the day it would be his turn to defend Hierarchy and galaxy from the cruelties of life and those who would take advantage of it.

Like most everyone who watched the show, Shaltis sat transfixed as the events played out to their mandible-dropping conclusion as she watched what was no less than open gang-warfare out on the corridors of the Scows with Jane, Mike, and this Ameki Jovis right in the middle; no back-up, no RRU, and no way out.

Lutania watched with fascination while Maxivus watched with glee, cheering his Auntie on. Yet Shaltis Adepdos found herself praying to the Spirits at all that she saw, watching as the situation evolve into a catastrophe.

* * *

Author's Note: A little later than I wanted for the post, but for some reason I've decided to split my efforts on like 5-6 stories between '_Sister Jane Shepard, Mormon Citadel Missionary_', '_Pathfinder Down_', '_LiveC-SEC_', a FictionPress Original called '_Earthrise_', and my newest one, a Fallout 76 FF called '_Wild Appalachia_'. Oh, and I'm writing another original about a not-so-pretty superhero called '_Monstrous_' that will probably go on FP in a couple of weeks once I figure out the plot down right and turn a college student into the Shem Drowne; Boston's about to get its own insect-themed superhero!

RRU (Rapid Response Unit) is my version of Citadel SWAT, created back during the Mass Effect vs. Alien days several years prior when I was still doing Valkyrieverse. In _Of Lions And Angels_, I reimaged Garrus Vakarian into a Rapid Response Sniper to explain why a Detective would use one (as because I extremely doubt there's ten Detectives on the planet that are also extremely-range marksmen. Sniper training in the military usually means a few years in Active Duty before going to Sniper School, and a few years at that. While I'm not sure what the police might use for SWAT Snipers [if they aren't military trained or really good hunters, the other version], but I'm sure the NYPD and the LAPD have probably got marksmen that can take out a pip on a poker card at distances that start with the number _ridiculous_).


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